Cardinal O’Brien: Big homo

May he burn in hell. There is no more appropriate place for hugely homophobic Catholic church leaders like Britain’s Cardinal Keith O’Brien, who bash gays for sport, then end up being gay.

The UK’s Cardinal O’Brien, you’ll recall, was the Catholic church’s senior official in Britain, and was recently accused by four priests, 3 current and one former, of inappropriate contact of a sexual nature when they were young seminarians. O’Brien denied it, then quit, then admitted it today.

Not that this should surprise. I’ve long suspected that some of the most virulent homophobes act the way they do because they’re gay. Who else, after all, would be so committed to the notion of homosexuality being a “choice” as someone who is secretly gay and “chooses” not to act on their urges. Except of course, Cardinal O’Brien acted, at least four times, and finally got caught.

From the Guardian we learn what Cardinal O’Brien is accused of having done:

I had four statements that described the cardinal attempting to touch, kiss, or have sex with people in his care.

“He started fondling my body, kissing me and telling me how special I was to him and how much he loved me,” one had written. One of the statements was five pages long. Given the strength of the evidence we had, the Observer chose to publish the story.

In May 2005 he told members of the Scottish Parliament that homosexuals were “captives of sexual aberrations”, comparing homosexuals to prisoners in Saughton jail. In January 2006 he criticised Westminster MPs over the introduction of civil partnerships in the UK, and Holyrood members over the liberalisation of divorce laws in Scotland, In July 2006 he opposed proposals to change the law which would require Catholic adoption agencies to place children with homosexuals in the same way as with heterosexuals, calling them totalitarian.[dubious – discuss] In 2011 he criticised “aggressive secularism” denouncing what he claimed was the way Christians had been prevented from acting in accordance with their beliefs because they refuse to endorse such lifestyles.

On 5 March 2012, O’Brien criticised the concept of same-sex marriage on BBC Radio 4, saying it would shame the United Kingdom and that promoting such things would degenerate society further.

Bite me.

Interestingly, the Guardian notes that the Vatican’s initial response to the scandal was – wait for it – to sweep it under the rug:

The four complainants made their statements to the papal nuncio, Archbishop Mennini, around 8 or 9 February. On 11 February the pope resigned. The first response the complainants received from the nuncio said O’Brien should continue to go to Rome because “that will make it easier to arrange his retirement to be one of prayer and seclusion like the pope”. The complainants recognised church subtext. In a message to me one wrote: “This is saying, ‘leave it to us to sweep it under the carpet and you can forget about it. It will fade away as if we have dealt with it.’ Not acceptable.”

The Catholic leadership has long been a fan of “do as I say, not as I do” morality. It’s okay for them to do every “sin,” but for you, not so much. And they’ll even go so far as to cover up the sin, claim they did nothing wrong – and then blame the victims, as Ratzinger himself did as a cardinal, as did another church leader – when it’s one of their own, as we’ve learned time and again with the church’s pedophilia scandal.

The Catholic Church’s moral hypocrisy appears to know no bounds. I can’t think of any organization, other than the Boy Scouts, that has had such a problem with pedophiles as the Catholic Church. And both, interestingly, are guilty of such moral hubris.

This should be the final nail in the coffin of the Catholic Church’s moral authority, but it won’t be. These are men who rape children and routinely cover it up, while then aiding and abetting the rape of even more children, and who have yet to admit full responsibility for their crimes. In that kind of perverted world, what’s one guy who sexually harassed an 18-year-old?

John AravosisFollow me on Twitter: @aravosis | @americablog | @americabloggay | Facebook | Instagram | Google+ | LinkedIn. John Aravosis is the Executive Editor of AMERICAblog, which he founded in 2004. He has a joint law degree (JD) and masters in Foreign Service from Georgetown; and has worked in the US Senate, World Bank, Children's Defense Fund, the United Nations Development Programme, and as a stringer for the Economist. He is a frequent TV pundit, having appeared on the O'Reilly Factor, Hardball, World News Tonight, Nightline, AM Joy & Reliable Sources, among others. John lives in Washington, DC. John's article archive.